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GM–PSA Alliance Mid-Size Car Plans: Insignia, C5, 508 Replacements

General Motors Europe and PSA Peugeot Citroen have announced a new joint program that should put both companies on the path to recovery in Europe. In addition to sharing supply chains or factories, a joint program to co-develop cars has been announced.
Opel Insignia Sports Tourer 1 photo
Photo: Opel
Without going too much into details, the official release states one of the projects is a jointly developed mid-size car for “Opel/Vauxhall and the Peugeot and Citroen brands.”

But the scale of the two manufacturers’ collaboration is far larger, and thus we believe Opel will actually be tasked with this project, with input coming from PSA. We say this because GM was already working on the D2XX platform.

Previous reports suggested the replacement for the current Citroen C5 would be built not in a Citroen factory, but in one of Opel’s European facilities, most likely the Russelsheim factory in Germany, which will be cleared of Astra production when this generation ends.

Is PSA killing Rennes?

The Citroen C5 and Peugeot 508 are built alongside the C6 at the Rennes Plant. This is a historic facility for Citroen, having produced models like the GS, BX and even the 2CV. The factory has a capacity of about 400,000 cars per year and was updated as recently as 2010.

New rumors suggest Opel is reconsidering building the Insignia in Russelsheim, and will instead shift it to to PSA's Rennes. With a replacement for the Insignia still about 3 years away, it might just be too early to tell.

The Citroen C5 is the oldest of all the cars that are rumored to be replaced under this mid-size car venture. Unveiled in 2007, it entered production in 2008, available with normal springs of a new version of the hydropneumatic suspension system. Its platform was re-engineered for the Peugeot 508, which shares most of its engines. But both these PSA saloons are built together not only in France, but more importantly in China at theWuhan. Demand there for the 508 is especially strong.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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